The Chessboard
by Ellen Lily
Summary: The demon, Matalino, has decided to take on the biggest challenge of his long life: the Halliwell children. Yet, he is not like other demons who have tried to rid the world of the witches, he is a chess player. A chess player looking for a more interesting game to play. With none of the Halliwells really understanding the game, can they win this dangerous match?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This is a story that has been bumping around my head for a few years. It takes place after the TV show ended, and I don't read the comics, so none of those ideas will be included. This first chapter, after the look into the demon's plot, switches points of views quickly, but in latter chapters will heavily rely on Melinda Halliwell's point of view along with her brothers and cousins. The adults' points of view typically won't be represented because this is a next generation story.**

**I have many ideas for this story, but sometimes my real life gets in the way, so I will apologize now for the strange updating habits. I can however promise that this story will be finished at some point in the future.**

**I'd love to hear your feedback, but truthfully I won't update any faster due to reviews, and this is the last time I will ask for them.**

**Thank you and enjoy the story.**

**Ps. I do not own Charmed in any of its forms.**

Chapter 1

Somewhere in the underworld

"There has to be a way to kill all those brats!" A demon, bloodied and limping seethed while dragging himself over to a couch. He kicked his leg up on a table to assess the damage. "I'm going to need stitches," he whined. A male demon across the room sighed and looked up at him over his chess game.

"You're lucky you don't need an urn," he answered dryly. The idiot had recently decided to go after the Halliwells. He had been around for the days when demons thought the grandmother of the Charmed Ones was bad. Then he had seen the Charmed Ones come into their powers and no one, **no one**, had thought it could get worse. They were wrong. The three Charmed Ones had produced a total of nine offspring, the youngest being only eight but able to orb, heal, command the weather, and who knows what else. In his short life, he had been responsible for the death of many demons. Of course, there were also the older ones who had bad attitudes, vast knowledge of their craft, and enough power to bend the earth itself into two pieces if they so wished. Hopefully the Charmed Ones were finished spawning… "What do you want?"

The other demon peered over at him. "You are intelligent," he praised, "You must have thought up thousands of ways to kill them. I would help you; I would send my entire squad of underlings to you. We could destroy them all!"

"Yes," the demon hissed peering at him mildly, "I am intelligent, enough so that I'm still alive and not dripping blood on my clean carpet." He took his own king and cleared the chessboard. "I prefer killing intelligently. I don't simply run in guns blazing relying on my brawn."

"Which is exactly what I need," The other demon exclaimed, "a way to kill them with the mind instead of with brawn. Or even better, with mind and brawn. You think up a plan and I'll supply the army. Come, Matalino, you must have some way you think you can kill them and I have the resources. We can't lose." Matalino regarded the high level demon. It was true that they all wanted the Halliwells dead and it could be a good challenge for his mind….

Suddenly it was all laid out for him: a chessboard. He looked at his guest and no longer saw a peer, but a pawn. A disposable pawn that would help him win what he wanted. A strategy for the coming game formed in his head.

"Yes," he whispered, "I can see it in my mind." He reached into his desk draw and removed a different set of chess pieces, the ones he only used for special games. He set up three rows in the center of the chessboard with three pieces in each and studied them with eagerness "Come, let's play chess."

It was a "normal" day at the Halliwell manor. Piper was in the kitchen with her daughter, Melinda, and Paige's twins, Pandora and Patricia. Melinda was studying trigonometry and eating an apple absentmindedly. The twins were scribbling away on pads of paper writing essays for their 7th grade classes. Pandora paused and looked as though she was about to say something but before she could Melinda spoke.

"He was born February 12th, 1808" Piper glanced over at the trio as her niece went back to work and her daughter continued writing out a math problem, not even pausing for a second. Melinda: the closest to normal any of the younger (or for that matter the older) Halliwells got. Yet, she was able to read the twins' minds and bring inanimate objects to life. Piper smiled at the irony and glanced into the living room.

Piper's middle son, Chris, was obviously in charge of the remote to the television. On the screen was a filmed expedition into the Amazon rainforest and he was watching intently from the couch. His older brother, Wyatt, who had stopped by to eat dinner after his college classes, was looking between the television and Chris seeming to calculate the best way to gain control of the remote. It would probably involve violence of some sort. Polianna, Phoebe's middle daughter, sensed conflict brewing between the twenty and eighteen year olds and picked herself of the floor with a sigh while stuffing a notebook under her arm.

On her way up to the attic she passed Chris's room where, unbeknownst to her, her ten year old sister, Philippa was letting lose a frog and some grasshoppers to scare her older cousin. When Polianna knocked on the door at the top of the second stair case, her mother answered and she walked into the attic.

Phoebe was standing behind Prudence, her eldest daughter, when her 15 year old stepped into the room. Prudence was studying the _Book of Shadows_ intently while copying a potion onto a piece of paper to try to recreate in the kitchen later. Considering the high school sophomore had her culinary skills she was glad that her ladybug had picked a pretty harmless potion to practice and that Piper would most likely be helping her.

"Wyatt and Chris are about to start fighting." Polly stated and as though on cue a crash sounded from the living room. It was strange how the cupid and psychic/empath mix had resulted in two distinct powers that were related to their parents and yet vastly different. There was Prue, who could see and feel the thoughts and emotions of someone and manipulate them to make them remember better times to cheer them up or to make love flourish in their hearts. Good in small doses, bad when she is three and her mother and father are fighting while her aunts and uncles are having issues. Phoebe still had only a blurry recollection of those three days. Then, Polly could sense conflicts and heal the rifts they cause afterwards. From what had been implied by a few different kinds of "guest" her powers had not completely developed.

"I'm coming," Prue scribbled the rest of the ingredients down and went to help calm down her cousins not with her powers (Phoebe hoped), but with her uncanny ability to calm down the two's bickering.

The Halliwell children didn't realize a game was about to begin. All nine chess pieces were in place.


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own charmed in any of its forms**

Chapter 2

Melinda looked down at her math homework to see words. On her _math _homework. Great, just what she needed.

"What?" Pan asked sensing her mood change.

"Nothing," she lied which caused Pat to raise an eyebrow in an 'Oh, really?' fashion. Not only could Patricia read the past, but she and Pandora, who read the present, had also developed a magical bond with her that allowed them to sense changes in each other and, in dire situations, read each other's minds. When fighting demons the little trick was wonderful, but in everyday life it got to be a bit exasperating. "I'm just not feeling too well. I'm going to go to my room." She rose from the table and took her math homework with her ignoring the skeptical looks coming from the thirteen year olds. She passed her older brothers rolling on the floor with the remote between them like they were seven. She rolled her eyes. "Boys are idiots," she muttered which got her two matching glares before they went back to killing each other. She traveled up the stairs and was passed by Prue.

"Why don't you deal with your brothers sometimes?" Prue asked.

"Why don't you deal with the twins?" she asked.

"I will trade you any day." Of course she would say that. She didn't know exactly what could happen when you stuck the two in a room for longer than half an hour. Let's just say, at least Wyatt and Chris only physically fought. The twins could inflict damage without touching each other. Through their telekinetic communication. Which she happened to be a part of. Yeah, Melinda didn't appreciate having the walls of her mind shredded because someone took the last piece of birthday cake.

Prue continued down the steps to break up the wrestling match and she continued up them. As she was heading down the hall Philippa came out of Chris's room trying and failing to be stealthy.

"Hey, Philly, will I be waking up to screams tonight?" she asked. Philly smiled innocently and went giggling down the hallway without answering. Melinda shook her head and went to her room. Philly had a little bit of a trouble-making streak to her (big surprise in the Halliwell Manor.) Speaking of trouble… She set her math homework on her bed and read the words that her hand had written.

_Andras_

_Matalino_

_CHESS_

She had never discussed this power with anyone, not even the twins. She wasn't completely sure what it was or why it happened, but sometimes when something was about to happen she was given warnings through her own writing or typing. She would be doing something and suddenly her hands would get minds of their own and she would be unable to stop them until the message was written. In theory it was a wonderful power to have. If only the powers-that-be would give her more information than three random words. She sighed. _Book of Shadows_ here I come.

"Aunt Phoebe," a little boy's voice caused Polly and her mother to turn around to see the little boy who had just orbed into the attic.

"Henry Jr., what are you doing here?" Polly's mother asked the eight year old suspiciously. He just smiled his 'I'm adorable' grin. Five seconds later a male voice yelled from downstairs.

"Please tell me he came here!" Henry Senior screamed form the front foyer.

"What did you do to your daddy?" Phoebe asked. "Don't panic," she called and headed down the steps pulling the child with her. Alone in the attic now, Polly glanced around her. Most children, and some adults, would be frightened of the dimly lit space that seemed small, as though the walls could suffocate you. However, Polly knew that if you went exploring, even though your parents told you not to because they didn't know what was in half of the chests or what ninety percent of them did, the attic could seem boundless. Yes, it was a rather creepy attic, the kind that most kids would think monsters hid in, but Polly knew the real monsters didn't hide in attics. Most looked like normal people, that is until they shape shifted into fanged scaled creatures and tried to kill you with a ball of fire. No this attic wasn't where the monsters hid; it was where they were vanquished.

Her gaze caught on the potted plant that had been in the window yesterday. It was now on the floor with dirt spilling around its broken container. She sighed, for goodness sake could her family keep nothing alive? She walked over to it and scooped up the dirt with her hands and poured it into the container that had somehow managed to only get chipped. She reached for the little daisy plant, but before she could do anything with it, it began to move. It wrapped around her wrist of its own accord and started glowing.

"What's happening?" she asked to the room. In answer the plant disappeared seeming to seep into her skin and leave the green glow coming from her arm. "Well, that can't be good." 'Tell someone, I need to tell someone,' she thought and ran headlong for the steps. Not watching where she was going she barreled strait into Mel coming up the steps and they both went tumbling down.

"Hey!" Mel exclaimed when she landed on her back with a "hump" then paused, "Polly… you're glowing. What happened?"

"A plant attacked me!" Polly blubbered.

"A plant?"

"'mglowing!" she spoke so fast the words ran together.

"Alright, calm down now," Mel said in a firm voice. And Polly took a deep breath. "Now, slowly, tell me what happened."

"I was in the attic and the daisy plant in the window had been knocked over. I went over and tried to pick it up when it started glowing and wrapped around my wrist. It sunk into my skin, and then I started glowing."

Mel absorbed the knowledge and took a deep breath. "Okay, let's not panic. Both our moms are downstairs; they'll know what to do." Polly nodded surprised at her cousin's ablity to cope with the development so easily when Polly was trying hard not to panic. Melinda was only a few months older than her, but was thinking like an adult. "Alright let's-" she cut off in the middle of what she was about to say and her eyes took on a distant look. "Something's about to happen."

It was a second latter when Polly felt an angry energy reaching dark fingers towards them. She didn't know exactly what its intentions were, but they couldn't be good. It charged at them but bounced off of the earthy glow coming from her as though it was a shield. Registering the fact, Mel's hand came out to grip hers. Polly glanced over to see her cousin's eyes closed and her brows scrunched in concentration and, after a moment, a golden glow melded with the green one. The evil power went for them again with a vengeance but once again skirted around the edges, not coming anywhere near the two. She felt it slowly orbit around them, contemplating them and searching for a gap in their defenses. They huddled together on the floor for what seemed like hours before it slowly sunk back into the shadows and disappeared. Mel opened her eyes which to Polly's surprise were glowing white. In a moment they had returned back to their normal brown and the golden glow disappeared. As though it had been supported by Mel's glow, Polly's green one seemed to collapse and the girl herself fell against the floor panting.

"What was that?" Polly asked staring at the ceiling.

"I don't know, but whatever it was, it wasn't good."


End file.
